Turkish PM vows to establish special border troops to counter PKK

20:36, July 16, 2010

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would establish special border troops to counter the rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

Erdogan made the remarks at a meeting of his Justice and Development (AK) Party in the Turkish capital of Ankara, saying that experienced military staff would be on duty in those troops for five years or for a longer time.

"We have been working on increasing training of security forces that counter terrorism and on making those forces more experienced, " said Erdogan.

Erdogan underlined importance of international cooperation in fight against terrorism.

"Our aim is to designate only professional personnel at our borders," Erdogan said.

Erdogan said Turkey was also taking additional measures regarding border security, and re-building military outposts at borders.

"TOKI (Housing Development Administration of Turkey) is constructing 150 internal security and border military outposts, 141 observation towers, and 662 km of highway across the border," he said.

Erdogan said Turkey had mobilized all resources to fight terrorism, and was holding talks with executives of the European Union (EU), Iraq, Iran, Syria, Russia and the United States.

Erdogan also said around 150 mini unmanned aircraft, manufactured by local resources, were joining the fight against terrorism, adding that a ceremony would be held later on Friday to launch the first local-manufactured unmanned aircraft.

The Turkish armed forces said the PKK might intensify attacks over the summer when more PKK guerrillas arrive in Turkey from the mountainous areas in northern Iraq during warmer weather.

Turkey has long been fighting the PKK, which is active in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq, and frequently bomb PKK targets in the mountainous area inside Iraq's Kurdistan region.

The PKK, labelled a terrorist group by the Turkish government, the United States and the European Union, took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.